The cemetery of skulls and the chocolate of the dead
Death was the last to move. Before everything had been cornered, forbidding and forgetting for disuse. It happened when the whites and mestizos hurricane arrived and they noticed those archaic rites. His strict order of health and morals advised defenestrating them as well. And then the dead of the Mayans began to be something less their dead to gradually become the dead of the others..
"Until not long ago in our communities, the compadres bathed the deceased with a damp cloth that they drained and with the water that was collected in a container, a chocolate was made that all the relatives drank", explains the researcher and professor at the Universidad de Oriente in Linguistics and Maya Culture Lázaro Hilario Tuz. We chat in his family home in the town of Pomuch while we eat a bread famous throughout the region baked in what is known as the Spanish bakery.. Why was this custom made of chocolate? "Until not long ago in our communities, the compadres bathed the deceased with a damp cloth that they drained and with the water that was collected in a container, a chocolate was made that all the relatives drank"; "Until not long ago in our communities, the compadres bathed the deceased with a damp cloth that they drained and with the water that was collected in a container, a chocolate was made that all the relatives drank", explains Tuz.
Custom, of which there is hardly any document that has reflected it when it was carried out in remote villages of the rural areas of the Yucatan Peninsula, It is known by word of mouth from the elderly always fearful of being identified and relegated for being indigenous. "Until not long ago in our communities, the compadres bathed the deceased with a damp cloth that they drained and with the water that was collected in a container, a chocolate was made that all the relatives drank". In Campeche already 40 "Until not long ago in our communities, the compadres bathed the deceased with a damp cloth that they drained and with the water that was collected in a container, a chocolate was made that all the relatives drank".
In the most remote areas of the state of Quintana Roo it may still be practiced
"Until not long ago in our communities, the compadres bathed the deceased with a damp cloth that they drained and with the water that was collected in a container, a chocolate was made that all the relatives drank". It is a secluded place, without advances where people lived in the old days. "Until not long ago in our communities, the compadres bathed the deceased with a damp cloth that they drained and with the water that was collected in a container, a chocolate was made that all the relatives drank": "Until not long ago in our communities, the compadres bathed the deceased with a damp cloth that they drained and with the water that was collected in a container, a chocolate was made that all the relatives drank". When he died it was the closest ones who performed the P'O'Keban at the wake.. They very carefully cleaned the body without touching the sexual areas with a damp cloth.. With that water, according to the economic means of the family, a chocolate was made, the wealthiest, and those with fewer resources a pozol (a popular mexican water cream) that was distributed among the relatives. By drinking that broth, all the characteristics of the deceased were passed on to them», explains Professor Nehemiah.
By drinking that broth, all the characteristics of the deceased were passed on to them». The reality is that before the Spanish Conquest the ritual was always done with chocolate, that it was a cheap fruit, By drinking that broth, all the characteristics of the deceased were passed on to them», Chi points out.
By drinking that broth, all the characteristics of the deceased were passed on to them». It is made with a red tree chili that grows in the cornfields. It is milled, its juice is strained and it becomes dark, symbol of death. By drinking that broth, all the characteristics of the deceased were passed on to them», also tells the Mayan teacher Cessia Chuc.
Perhaps the last time this rite was practiced was at the burial about three years ago, calculates professor Nehemiah, of the considered last pure maya. By drinking that broth, all the characteristics of the deceased were passed on to them», in Quintana Roo. The deceased was considered a direct descendant of the Mayans who carried the talking cross (Mayan cross different from Christian), a myth by which the Mayan gods guided their warriors in the so-called Caste Wars between 1847 and 1901. Then the Mayans rebelled against the whites and mestizos who occupied the Yucatan Peninsula until the army ended the revolt. This man was buried in the backyard of his house, another custom forbidden today, By drinking that broth, all the characteristics of the deceased were passed on to them», Professor Nehemiah thinks.
Perhaps the last time this rite was practiced was at the burial about three years ago, calculates professor Nehemiah, of the considered last pure maya
Burying the dead in the house is another of the ceremonial customs that the authorities have prohibited the Mayans for health reasons.. By drinking that broth, all the characteristics of the deceased were passed on to them». For us a burial is to become part of nature and bones become relics. Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased», explains Professor Hilario Tuz.
And Pomuch, Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased», the authorities vetoed those burials in the houses, The custom was even prohibited of taking the remains of the deceased nine days to the homes every Day of the Dead and then transferring them with prayers to the pantheon again. But, with what they could not, things of tourism and money, It was with closing the unique municipal cemetery.
Mrs. Porfiria Maico, the 68 years, She is an endearing Mayan who accompanies us to the Christian-Mayan cemetery (religious syncretism occupies everything) where their relatives rest. With care and care, he asks us to bend down and help him remove the remains of Doña Angelita, mother-in-law's aunt, who died with 90 years. Next to it are two other boxes, sharing niche, of other relatives including the remains of a deceased child from 11 years.
We take out the box where the discovered bones of their relatives are observed. They are visible to any visitor. It, as every year, He has changed the cloths in which the remains are wrapped. Must be white, purity symbol, with some ornaments that the family sews. With the old cloth he gently cleans the remains of his ancestors and returns them to the box. Can't throw none out, they are all relics that must be placed back in the wooden container.
He does it like this always in the week of 2 November, Day of the Dead, where the ancestors reunite with their own. Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased», he says with a smile. He does not take any bones out of the box as it is not time for the dead, sign of respect, and explains how shortly he will begin to sew the cloths that will protect his relatives from November 2017. Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased», she says in dubious Spanish.
The cemetery is a succession of niches in which there are boxes with white cloths with skulls and bones in view of all
The cemetery is a succession of niches in which there are boxes with white cloths with skulls and bones in view of all. Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased». The person when he dies is corrupted and the flesh is considered sinful. In those three years it rots and separates from the bones that are later received as relics by families.. Saints to whom they can pray. Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased», explains Hilario Tuz.
There is an eighteenth century writing from the parish priest of the nearby town of Hecelchakán in which he speaks of a mass sung in Pomuch on All Saints' Day as they brought out their dead. The syncretism of the rite is not only Mayan and Christian, There are also influences from the Nahua culture when the Aztecs arrived in these southern lands in the 13th century.: Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased». They were ossuaries from before the conquest. Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased», Hilario Tuz points out.
The cemetery is full of skulls and bones in which they stick out, by singular and distinct, the graves of families of Spanish descent or of those who converted to the Protestant religion. Their graves are covered, like that of any western pantheon, in the middle of a world of bones placed in boxes above niches between narrow corridors.
The Spanish, as they are still called in town, they are actually families who arrived with their carriages, mules and horses in the mid-19th century, in Mexico already independent, and they dedicated themselves to prosper by renting their beasts of burden and their chariots to the Mayans. They earned money and owned land until the Mexican revolution in the early 20th century took away their farms.. Some survived by making a special bread that is now famous throughout the area.. Unlike with the lands, they in Pomuch did not lose the Christian tradition of burying their own by placing a marble tombstone on their heads.
The Spanish, as they are still called in town, they are actually families who arrived with their carriages, mules and horses in the mid-19th century
In that not always simple balance of diverse cultures and customs, was a report by Professor Tuz in 2002, in the framework of a congress on Mayan culture in the nearby city of Campeche, the one who helped save the cemetery and the ancient custom from the sanitary closure. Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased» 2003 and 2004 Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased», the researcher remembers. Before, the deceased was left in the house for a year and when it was his birthday a party was held where food was brought to the deceased». Pomuch has been saved by folklore and tourism», afirma is profesora Cessia Congratulations.
Money holds everything and little by little the pantheon of skulls is gaining a certain notoriety and the Day of the Dead becomes a parade of hundreds of people who will photograph that unique world of the dead without hiding. Pomuch has been saved by folklore and tourism». There are disrespectful people who are heard saying ‘how is it possible? It's disgusting'. Pomuch has been saved by folklore and tourism», notes Tuz.
That's a threat, maybe in many cases already a sentence, that always hangs over the Mayan world. The youth are gradually moving away from archaic rites and it is not uncommon to see the youth of Pomuch celebrate Halloween with more fervor than the old cultural rites of their ancestors..
The shamans or Mayan priests who are less and less or are reduced to an invented folklore
Parties to attract the rains, the Mayan shamans or priests who are less and less or are reduced to an invented folklore, carnivals in which men dressed up as women and danced by beating a drum, the baptisms (Jets Mek ') in which the baby was hugged with one hand and straddled the ribs of its parents… Everything is disappearing, or shaking, for the steamroller of the new times.
Pomuch has been saved by folklore and tourism». They are called witches without understanding that the religious gift must be acquired through a revelation or dream, Esáactun, in which the chosen old ancient ceremonial centers not recorded on the maps are revealed to them. The practices of our people contravene the official message. Pomuch has been saved by folklore and tourism», notes Professor Cessia Chuc.
Pomuch has been saved by folklore and tourism». People went to caves and mountains but modernity arrived, roads, and they were sanctioned. Harassment made people deviate from their customs. Pomuch has been saved by folklore and tourism», denounces Professor Nehemiah Chi. Pomuch has been saved by folklore and tourism», Pomuch has been saved by folklore and tourism», the researcher concludes.
PD. Mayan words, despite the fact that in some cases the teachers wrote them in the notebook or spelled them out, may not be exact. Sorry if there is any phonetic error.
Article also published in El Mundo Chronicle
Comments (2)
MAURO GOZALEZ
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EXCELLENT REPORT MY DEAR JAVIER
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Javier Brandoli
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Thank you my dear Mauro
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